5G’s Big Equity Problem

It’s past time we talk about the overblown hype surrounding 5G. The conversation usually fails to address the effects the spread of 5G will have on the digital divide. After endless speculative articles, television ads, and congressional testimony trumpeting the amazing benefits 5G services could bring, there is an urgent need to inject context to this conversation.

A dangerous side effect of this hype goes largely unchecked: 5G services are likely to exacerbate the already deep digital divide. For at least the next several years, the 5G that providers tout as revolutionary will be deployed and available only in high-density and wealthy urban and suburban areas, where carriers expect to receive a high return on their investment. Meanwhile, rural, low-income, Tribal, and other hard-to-serve or historically marginalized communities will be left even further behind.

To prevent the buildout of 5G networks from worsening the digital divide, policymakers should focus on providing better solutions for consumers across the country who need home internet services.

The big-dollar infrastructure package currently being debated in Congress offers a prime opportunity for lawmakers to promote the policies needed to move in the right direction. These solutions should include spurring competition in the marketplace and enabling high-capacity broadband adoption: This could be done by constructing and extending fiber networks with open access middle-mile networks, ensuring investments are not limited to unserved areas, and strengthening Wi-Fi services.

Debunking the 5G Hype and Highlighting its Impact on the Digital Divide

Before diving further into those solutions, it’s worthwhile to point out that after years of prolonged hype (and an initial expectation of broader availability starting in 2019), mobile 5G services have only just begun to arrive in specific urban areas in the United States, with extremely lackluster results. Plus, experts predict that even full-fledged 5G services will produce only marginal speed gains relative to 4G LTE networks today.

Part of the problem is that the spectrum needed, at very high frequencies, for true 5G is particularly susceptible to disruption by trees, weather, and other obstacles and can only travel short distances, and requires many cell sites placed throughout a city.

Companies, therefore, face much higher costs, which results in the key equity problem: Where will mobile carriers deploy high-speed, high-capacity networks that require much higher upfront costs? The places where they can recoup their investments and make significant profits. In other words, high-speed deployments — whenever they are even available — will be restricted to wealthy areas with higher population densities. Indeed, so far, mobile 5G deployments have largely been restricted to urban centers, airports, and shopping districts, among other wealthy and high-traffic areas.

In a favorite quip alluding to this reality, Montana Sen. Jon Tester notes that while the industry touts 5G, many areas currently have “no G.” These rural, Tribal, and other hard-to-serve areas cannot expect to leapfrog from 2G or 3G all the way to 5G. Many of the same obstacles that left these areas lacking connectivity, such as mobile carriers failing to see sufficient returns on investment for deployments, will obstruct high-frequency 5G to an even greater degree.

The Name of the Game is Fiber

It’s not just rural areas, mobile 5G services will mirror and worsen the existing gaps which have left Black, Hispanic, Tribal, and low-income communities disproportionately less connected than the rest of the country.

This is due to the fact that mobile 5G services — much like 4G mobile networks — are largely reliant on offloading the majority of mobile data traffic onto Wi-Fi and fixed fiber broadband networks. To save cost, roughly 70 percent of the data consumed on smartphones and other mobile devices is pushed onto cable and other fixed-line networks using Wi-Fi, and do not actually travel to their final destination via their carrier’s mobile network. Analysts forecast that the share of offloaded mobile data will skyrocket for high-capacity mobile 5G services.

In short, 5G applications require a high-fiber diet. And the United States lags behind many of its international counterparts in the widespread availability of high-speed, reliable fiber networks. The availability of 5G services will likely be tailored to areas already sporting fiber-to-the-home in the region. Especially as studies have suggested that internet service providers have engaged in digital redlining and have kept the newest and fastest technologies from reaching low-income and majority-Black neighborhoods. If fiber remains generally limited to wealthy and white neighborhoods, the lack of high-capacity fixed broadband will continue be particularly harmful for historically marginalized communities

Fiber networks have the capability to go much further in bridging the digital divide for those lacking home internet access than mobile 5G services, as they are geared to provide faster services for years to come. Thus, the availability of fiber will equate to not only faster home-fixed internet connections for households in the area, but also the viability of mobile 5G services.

How Infrastructure Policies Can Address the Coming 5G-Fueled Digital Divide

As Congress works towards passing an infrastructure package, the specifics of what that money will support will be key to deciding whether the package actually increases broadband adoption and addresses the potential for the digital divide to grow with 5G. Specifically, there must be an emphasis to deploy fiber to all consumers who are unable to access high-speed internet services in both areas deemed “unserved” and those labeled as “served” despite the fact service is either too expensive or powered by legacy networks that offer worse and slower service. Further, the deployment of fiber should attach “open access” policies to these networks. Such requirements would allow any internet service provider that connects to the publicly funded network without discriminatory terms or conditions to bring services to homes, schools, libraries, and other community anchor institutions using the network as a foundation.

A recent example is the $6 billion of public financing for open access, middle-mile fiber broadband infrastructure proposed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and adopted unanimously in mid-July by the California legislature. If the government is going to spend the money and resources to build out fiber networks, they should allow competition to flourish and ensure communities are adequately served since that is the end goal of the policy, not filling the pockets of the internet service providers. These deployments should not be limited just to rural areas that lack service — Congress should ensure that this build-out project serves areas that have been persistently left with old technology from the early 2000s, as well as those that lack adequate competition.

These rural, Tribal, and other hard-to-serve areas cannot expect to leapfrog from 2G or 3G all the way to 5G.

Similarly, strengthening Wi-Fi services would improve connectivity for millions more quickly and equitably than 5G, while also helping mobile 5G providers deploy sooner in less densely populated areas. For over 20 years, Wi-Fi has developed and flourished in just a few bands of spectrum, which have grown increasingly congested as the number of connected devices leaps year-by-year. Currently, the Federal Communications Commission is working to open up new bands of airwaves to meet the rapidly increasing demand for Wi-Fi in homes, offices, schools, and other public places, as well as increasing mobile data demand. Wi-Fi has brought widespread benefits, including supporting education in low-income and other historically marginalized and underserved communities.

Millions of Americans who currently have cable-powered broadband service at home will have access to 5G-like capabilities through next-generation Wi-Fi much sooner than if we wait for mobile 5G services to maybe, hopefully, one day reach them. The current infrastructure package could provide one such opportunity to direct the FCC to add to the capacity of Wi-Fi, which in turn would improve wireless services and support the deployment of community Wi-Fi networks in the near and long-term future.

The coming of mobile 5G networks could transform wireless connectivity, but more urgently they are set to exacerbate disparities in internet access. We must address these gaps by extending connectivity to those who are unable to access or afford service. Investing in more open access fiber networks and spectrum capacity for next generation Wi-Fi would go a long way towards ensuring mobile 5G’s long-term success too.

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